The Wraith
by The boy who cried Godzilla
Summary: The Doctor and Clara travel to celadon 3, 300 years before it became the resort and spa planet that they were expecting. In the Jungles of the planet, a murderous predator stalks those who hunt it, what can the doctor do? (sounds stupid doesn't it? I think that it's worth reading though...)


"Celadon 3" said the doctor

"What?" replied Clara

"Not what, where. Celadon 3 is a planet."

"Well what's on Celadon 3?"

"A tropical resort of course!" replied the doctor. "remember, our vacation? Any of this ringing a bell?"

At that moment, unbeknownst to the Doctor, he twisted a certain knob on the console with his elbow.

"And here we are!"

As the TARDIS materialized, Clara looked at the viewscreen and saw many large adobe buildings.

"Must be much fancier on the insides." thought Clara.

No sooner had they stepped out of the TARDIS, when two parties of Humanoids formed from those in the streets and from those in the buildings. Many were dressed in Aztec-esque hunting masks with spears and feather adornments and ran toward them. Whilst the others ran back to their homes and ran through the streets screaming:

"_THE PALE WRAITH COMETH!"_

The Doctor was confused.

"Pale wraith? _That_ wasn't in the brochure…"

"Did we come to the wrong time?"

"That must be it"

"I'm curious about this pale wraith…"

"Clara this is a potentially dangerous time-period, with some creature prowling the forests,"

"But can we at least stay for a night?"

"Fine."

They found a tavern and entered.

"Excuse me sir," said the Doctor to the clerk

"I would like a room with two bedrolls."

"Certainly sir"

"Two!?" Clara asked.

"Ummm… yes." Said the doctor with confusion.(Albiet fake confusion, but confusion all the same.)

The next morning they awoke to celebration.

"What is it Doctor!"

"It appears that the Wraith hunters are returning."

It was not long until the joyous shouts turned into worried screams for doctors. They went out to investigate. What they saw was too terrible for words, Out of the twenty that left on the hunt, only three returned, and the three that returned, were not a pretty sight.

Later at the healing hut, the Doctor asked a few questions.

"What happened to you?"

"The Wraith! The Wraith!" the patient began to scream.

"A classic case of PTSD. The screwdriver can fix that,"

The pulses from the sonic calmed the tense muscles and nerves.

"Now again, what happened to you?"

"The wraith attacked the party."

"Tell me about this, 'wraith'"

"Two years ago, it came to the village and stole meat and fruit from the storage."

"So your village began to hunt it?"

"Yes, we sent both of our best hunters, yet neither came back"

"And you've hunted it ever sense?"

"How close have you come to killing it?"

"One man cut off a bit of its hair"

"What does it look like?"

"Its skin is Pale, much like yours, but more so, and it has no marks."

"Marks, those yellow things on you? Your Tattoos?"

"Not Tattoos, they are skin, we are born with them"

"Ah, I see, go on."

"It has long and floppy hair"

"What color?"

"Black, like yours-is it from your planet?"

"I doubt it"

"Any distinguishing facial features?"

"It has a gigantic chin"

"Eye color"

"_THE EYES! THE HORRIBLE EYES! THEY BURN! THE GREAT YELLOW EYES!_"

The doctor promptly zapped him to sleep.

"Thanks old chap. Clara! It's time to go."

Deep in the forest, Clara and the Doctor trade information.

"What did you learn from the hunter you chose?" asked the Doctor

"He told me that a baby fitting its description was born here, and put in the orphanage, but was stolen by jaguars."

"really?"

Clara heard a noise.

"What was that?"

"Based on the pitch and length of the sound, I'd say that a primate of sorts is in that clearing."

"Is it the wraith?"

"Likely"

As they crept slowly toward the clearing, they saw him, he seemed calm enough, seeing as he was picking fruit from the trees, but when they began to approach him, the wraith heard them and his head whipped around to see them. His face was basically average, except for the glowing yellow eyes.

"Cheetah disease!" exclaimed the doctor.

As the doctor came closer, his quiet prey-stalking mouth turned to an attack mode snarl.

"Doctor!" said Clara

The Doctor stepped into the light so that the wraith could see him.

The wraith had never seen a being who looked so like himself.

The Doctor just stood there and smiled as the wraith slowly backed away into the brush.

"Nice going Doctor, you scared it away" said Clara

"Not Quite."

The Doctor could see the two yellow eyes, still fixed on him from the shadows. The doctor just kept smiling as he plucked a purple, mango-like fruit from a high spot on the tree where the wraith couldn't possibly reach, and held it out toward the eyes.

As the wraith crept out of its hiding place, its eyes shifted from yellow to green, as it took the fruit from the outstretched hand of the Doctor.

"Not so threatening now, are you?"

From the Bushes, a severely dehydrated Clara was having wild hallucinations of air stewardesses and girls in crimson fairy princess outfits, and girls with short dark hair dressed in seventies fashions. They were all running around battling a large pale insect with glowing yellow eyes.

"The wraith!" said she in a dazed voice.

It was at that moment that the doctor remembered that Clara was hiding in the brush.

"Clara, he's not lethal. Clara?"

The wraith began to pad over toward Clara. Seeing the wraith's face above her in her dazed state, saw a familiar face.

"Hello Doctor."

The wraith looked concerned and grunted a few times. It ran toward the jungle and came back in a minute or two with a gourd-like leaf of sorts.

"What do we do with that?" asked the doctor

The wraith placed the thin end to her lips and tipped it up slowly.

"Can I see that?" said the doctor as he held out his hand.

The child placed the gourd in the doctor's hands. The doctor dipped a finger in, and raised it to his nose.

"Ahh, lazarus extract, quenches thirst, and totally numbs the senses. Alrighty then, it seems that sense the townspeople don't want you here, I'll take you with us"

The walk back to the village was tedious (Even more so with Clara on the Doctor's back) but the wraith kept good guard, knowing the paths and dangers of the jungle, he was a fair guide. Soon enough they reached the village, and were met by an angry mob.

"The stranger has brought the pale wraith to destroy us!"

"Kill them both!"

"Kill all three!"

"_I do not have any intention, whatsoever, to bring harm to any of you!"_

"_I have come to rid your town of the wraith forevermore!"_

"Rejoice for the stranger!" said many a townsperson as the torches were turned to fire dancing rods.

In the TARDIS, when Clara finally awoke, the wraith had been asleep for an hour or so. When she finally found the doctor, he was sitting in a wooden chair in a dark red room, dimly lit by a few candles.

"watcha doing in here?"

"I tried to leave but he kept grabbing my arm as if to ask me to stay."

"Whose 'he'"

"Take a look"

In the dim light she saw an absurd sight.

"Is that the wraith?"

"yes"

"Why the hell did you let the bloody _wraith_ into the TARDIS?"

"He's harmless."

"Oh yes, I can tell by the _necklace of teeth he's wearing!"_

"I ran an analysis on them, most of them are his."

"Most?"

"The ones that aren't are from animals"

"I'm so comforted." Said Clara sarcastically

"so did you find anything else about the mother?"

"what mother"

"his mother"

"oh, she had light brown curly hair, and used the name 'Song'"

"first name?"

"oh I don't know, lake, stream, duck-pond, estuary, ocean, river, something like that."

"River song" said the doctor, "and you really think that he looks like me?"

"um… yes."


End file.
